• Title/Summary/Keyword: Lunar habitat

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Investigation of Technical Requirements for a Protective Shield with Lunar Regolith for Human Habitat (월면토를 이용한 달 유인 우주기지 보호층의 기술적 요구조건에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Jangguen ;Gong, Zheng;Jin, Hyunwoo ;Ryu, Byung Hyun;Kim, Young-Jae
    • Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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    • v.39 no.10
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    • pp.49-55
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    • 2023
  • The discovery of lunar ice in the lunar polar region has fueled international interest in in situ resource utilization (ISRU) and the construction of lunar habitats. Unlike Earth's atmosphere, the Moon presents unique challenges, including frequent meteoroid impacts, direct exposure to space radiation, and extreme temperature variations. To safeguard lunar habitats from these threats, the construction of a protective shield is essential. Lunar regolith, as a construction material, offers distinct advantages, reducing transportation costs and ensuring a sustainable supply of raw materials. Moreover, it streamlines manufacturing, integration schedules, and enables easy repairs and modifications without Earth resupply. Adjusting the shield's thickness within the habitat's structural limits remains feasible as lunar conditions evolve. Although extensive research on protective shields using lunar regolith has been conducted, unresolved conflicts persist regarding shield requirements. This study conducts a comprehensive analysis of the primary lunar threats and suggests a minimum shield thickness of 2 m using lunar regolith. Furthermore, it outlines the necessary technology for the rapid construction of such protective shields.

Case Study on Tube Transportation Systems for Lunar Regolith Transportation System (튜브운송기술 사례연구를 통한 달 토양 운송시스템 적용방안)

  • Tak, Jun-Woo;Chang, Byung-Chul;Koo, Ja-Kyung;Kim, Jeong-Hyun;Lee, Tai-Sik
    • Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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    • 2010.06a
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    • pp.1951-1957
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    • 2010
  • Study of Lunar exploration is progressed and manned lunar exploration is planned. In order to explore in Lunar, we need habitat to stay for a long time and system that mine, classify and transport materials. Lunar has dust that is very light-tiny. That is on the air for a long time so there are problems to adject transportation system such as vehicle. However, it can solve the problem to use pipe transportation system. This transportation system help materials move continually and is more effective than other transportation system such as train or vehicle. For those positive points, some experts studied about tube transportation systems. I introduce these system and find out factors that can be used in Lunar regolith transportation system. I suggest Lunar regolith transportation system, using the factors.

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Experimental Evaluation of Ice-regolith Mixture Settlement Caused by Lunar Ice Extraction (달 얼음-월면토 결합 형태에 따른 얼음 추출로 발생하는 침하량 평가)

  • Lee, Jangguen;Gong, Zheng;Jin, Hyunwoo;Ryu, Byung Hyun
    • Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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    • v.39 no.6
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    • pp.13-19
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    • 2023
  • Lunar ice is a resource available for future human exploration in deep space and long-term extraterrestrial habitat. However, the origin and nature of lunar ice remains unclear. In addition to remote sensing, international space agencies are competitively planning and conducting missions for lunar surface exploration to determine the existence and resource extent of lunar ice. If a sufficient amount of lunar ice is confirmed, its future in-situ resource utilization is expected to be greatly beneficial. However, due to ice extraction, settlement may occur, which should be taken into account from a geotechnical engineering perspective. Herein, experimental investigations of the potential settlement caused by lunar ice extraction were conducted and different textures of lunar ice were simulated. Consequently, it was confirmed that significant settlement occurs even at the initial water content of ~10% in lunar regolith simulant-ice-mixed soil.

Optimization of Material Extruding Performance to Build a 3D Printed Habitat on the Moon and Mars (달, 화성 3D 프린팅 주거지 건설을 위한 재료 사출기능 최적화 연구)

  • Lee, Jin Young;Lee, Tai Sik
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.39 no.2
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    • pp.345-349
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    • 2019
  • The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has long been studying the essential elements of manned planetary exploration and has held several international challenges to encourage the research works related to it. One of them was the NASA Centennial Challenge Programs which started in 2015. Following the second in 2017, the third is currently going on in 2019. Participating "3D-Printed Habitat Challenge", one of the challenges in the second program, this research team designed and developed the 3D printer extruding module for the Lunar Simulant (Korea Hanyang Lunar Simulant-1; KOHLS-1) and the polymer. For optimizing the modul, a cylindrical specimen of ${\varnothing}150{\times}300mm^3$ volume and a specimen of $200{\times}100{\times}650mm^3$ volume were manufactured and their compressive and flexural strengths were tested. The findings can help automatize the space construction in the future.

Assessment of DTVC Operation Efficiency for the Simulation of High Vacuum and Cryogenic Lunar Surface Environment (고진공 및 극저온 달의 지상 환경 재현을 위한 지반열진공챔버 운영 효율성 평가)

  • Jin, Hyunwoo;Chung, Taeil;Lee, Jangguen;Shin, Hyu-Soung;Ryu, Byung Hyun
    • Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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    • v.38 no.12
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    • pp.125-134
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    • 2022
  • The Global Expansion Roadmap published by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group, which is organized by space agencies around the world, presents future lunar exploration guidance and stresses a lunar habitat program to utilize lunar resources. The Moon attracts attention as an outpost for deep space exploration. Simulating lunar surface environments is required to evaluate the performances of various equipment for future lunar surface missions. In this paper, an experimental study was conducted to simulate high vacuum pressure and cryogenic temperature of the permanent shadow regions in the lunar south pole, which is a promising candidate for landing and outpost construction. The establishment of an efficient dirty thermal vacuum chamber (DTVC) operation process has never been presented. One-dimensional ground cooling tests were conducted with various vacuum pressures with the Korean Lunar Simulant type-1 (KLS-1) in DTVC. The most advantageous vacuum pressure was found to be 30-80 mbar, considering the cooling efficiency and equipment stability. However, peripheral cooling is also required to simulate a cryogenic for not sublimating ice in a high vacuum pressure. In this study, an efficient peripheral cooling operation process was proposed by applying the frost ratio concept.

Habitat Environments and Spatiotemporal Distribution of Clithon retropictum at the Estuaries of Bonggang and Miryoung Streams in the Southern Coast of Korea (남해안 봉강천과 미룡천 하구에서 기수갈고둥의 분포 및 서식지 환경 특성)

  • Jang, Keon Gang;Kim, Min-Seop;Jo, Soo-Gun;Yih, Wonho;Kim, Hyung Seop
    • Ocean and Polar Research
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    • v.43 no.3
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    • pp.127-140
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    • 2021
  • At the estuaries of Bonggang and Miryong streams in the Korean southern coast, the spatiotemporal distribution and habitat environment of a nerite snail, Clithon retropictum (Gastropoda: Neritidae), which has been assigned as a legally protected species of Korea, were explored. Physicochemical environmental factors such as water temperature, salinity, tidal level distribution as well as biotic environments (chlorophyll-a concentration and epilithic microalgae composition) were monitored every month. The relationships between the environmental factors and spatiotemporal distribution of the nerite snail population were analyzed. Water temperature, salinity, and water level varied by season and lunar tidal rhythm. The spatiotemporal distribution of the nerite snail was mostly related to water salinity. Among epilithic algae which were the priority prey of snails, blue-green algae and green algae dominated in summer and autumn, while diatoms predominated during winter and spring. Chlorophyll-a concentration was highly and positively correlated with the population density of the nerite snail. The correlation coefficients were different depending on the taxon (Family) of epilithic algae. The mean population density was 302.2 inds m-2 and 271.8 inds m-2 in Bonggang Stream and Miryong Stream, respectively. The egg capsules of the nerite snail in the two habitats were observed from March (in Bonggang Stream) or April (in Miryong Stream) to August, and newly hatched juveniles recruited in the habitats from August were assessed with regard to frequency distributions of shell width. The occurrence of large-sized snails in upper stream reaches of both Bonggang and Miryong indicated the movement of spats from the mouth to the upper reaches during the whole life cycle.